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Plenty of Spider-Man stories recap his origins, but Marvel’s Spider-Man is going a different route.

“We're telling a unique, original story, where Peter is 23 when it starts. He's an experienced Spider-Man,” Smith said. “We wanted to make sure that the controls and the experience that you open the game with are action-packed, and it's not your first time web-swinging. We want you as a player to feel in control and in command and find that depth later.”
This experienced, battle-ready Spider-Man will have a host of villains to contend with. A unique version of The Sinister Six serve as the main antagonists of the story, helmed (at least from what we’ve seen in trailers so far) by Mr. Negative, a.k.a. Martin Li. While he may not be as well-known as some of Spidey’s other foes, like Kingpin or Rhino, Mr. Negative was a natural fit for Insomniac’s theme of powerful people grappling with two identities.

“So we have this theme of Peter Parker's world and Spider-Man's world colliding; Martin Li also plays into that theme. He's got this life at the F.E.A.S.T. center as a great guy, a philanthropist who helps homeless people,” Paquette said. “But then there's this other part that he's struggling with that is Mr. Negative, and he's got a plan. Those two sides of him fighting against each other at the same time that Peter's worlds are colliding makes for really juicy drama.”

A compelling character from a story perspective, Mr. Negative’s got a lot of video-game friendly characteristics too. And showcasing his powers in combat is going to be a great way to introduce him to fans who aren’t familiar with his abilities. “He's got an inner demon and we can introduce his negative powers there. So it's a great way to provide that over-the-top Marvel action in the core combat,” said Smith. “Even for people who are familiar with the franchise, Mr. Negative is going to feel new and fresh.”

Anyone familiar with the Spider-Man franchise probably wants one thing: to be Spider-Man. But comic books and movies and TV shows can only take the escapism so far. Smith thinks games offer the best chance to actually live out those web-slinging fantasies. “If people can say ‘I totally felt like Spider-Man, even while I was sitting on this couch holding a controller,’ that's something we can do as a game that other media can't do,” he said. “I would love it if people were able to say that.”

Member

About two hours in, some observations so far (no story spoilers, just about presentation/mechanics):

I thought I had already downloaded the latest version (1.03), but there was an update to 1.04 waiting. Luckily it was only something like 170MB so a quick download, but if you're impatient and have it preloaded, check for updates manually just to be sure.

After starting the game and choosing a save slot, you are thrown into gameplay pretty much immediately. However, there are a few common settings that the player can adjust before that like audio setup, subtitles - and invert Y (yes, I'm one of them). It is rare these days to find a game where the option wouldn't exist at all, but often one has to change it when actual gameplay begins, or in worst cases after clearing a tutorial stage or somesuch. To have the option there, at the beginning (many contemporary games skip the main menu when playing the game for the first time), is much appreciated so kudos to Insomniac for that.

The puddles... I feel every time I think to myself "Well, Internet, you've shown me tons of retarded shit, but now you've plateaued. The only way from here is up!", the Internet replies with "Hold my beer!" and out comes something like #puddlegate. The bad news is, it will still linger on for a while, as stupid as it is. The good news is, it will eventually wither and be forgotten. The bad news is, it will be replaced by even more retarded shit, but such is the Internet.

Conspiracy theories aside, the game looks fantastic. We should start a petition that someone from Insomniac must hold a GDC talk about "temporal injection", but whatever witchcraft is being practiced, the end result looks great. There's some inherent softness to the image, but I don't find it distracting at all, given the art style.

The HDR support is... OK, I guess? It's not bad like in some games, where turning it on seems to cause everything to look worse. But at the same time, it doesn't make your retinas bleed with colour as say God of War. And as far as visual settings are concerned, it is an on-off toggle, no other adjustable values. This is something that could, and hopefully will, be improved with future patches.

As a fellow gaffer noted in the pre-release thread, initially both the traversal and combat are very basic. I wouldn't worry too much. That is what's commonly known as "a tutorial".

At its very core, the Arkham influences to the melee combat are undeniable. There's one fundamental change to the formula though: instead of having triangle be "counter", as pretty much everywhere, it is "webstrike". There is no counter, just dodge (and thankfully, multiple different variations of it). This took a bit of adjusting, being so used to the Arkham formula, but it works both thematically (Spider-Man is no brawler) and gameplay-wise.

...but fighting on the ground is boring. You'll want to stay in the air, your focus (think "super" meter, also used to replenish health) will charge faster too.

The photo mode is there, and seems very competent (and will probably be improved later on). I predict a continuous barrage of screenshots for the next couple of months. No adjusting the camera during cutscenes though, but that's to be expected.

Edit: almost forgot - yes, there have been some QTE sequences so far, but quite brief ones. Haven't tried failing them so cannot say what would happen. But bits where you have to mash a single button (why is this still a thing?) do not require you to have Parkinson's and be high on meth.

Member

About two hours in, some observations so far (no story spoilers, just about presentation/mechanics):

I thought I had already downloaded the latest version (1.03), but there was an update to 1.04 waiting. Luckily it was only something like 170MB so a quick download, but if you're impatient and have it preloaded, check for updates manually just to be sure.

After starting the game and choosing a save slot, you are thrown into gameplay pretty much immediately. However, there are a few common settings that the player can adjust before that like audio setup, subtitles - and invert Y (yes, I'm one of them). It is rare these days to find a game where the option wouldn't exist at all, but often one has to change it when actual gameplay begins, or in worst cases after clearing a tutorial stage or somesuch. To have the option there, at the beginning (many contemporary games skip the main menu when playing the game for the first time), is much appreciated so kudos to Insomniac for that.

The puddles... I feel every time I think to myself "Well, Internet, you've shown me tons of retarded shit, but now you've plateaued. The only way from here is up!", the Internet replies with "Hold my beer!" and out comes something like #puddlegate. The bad news is, it will still linger on for a while, as stupid as it is. The good news is, it will eventually wither and be forgotten. The bad news is, it will be replaced by even more retarded shit, but such is the Internet.

Conspiracy theories aside, the game looks fantastic. We should start a petition that someone from Insomniac must hold a GDC talk about "temporal injection", but whatever witchcraft is being practiced, the end result looks great. There's some inherent softness to the image, but I don't find it distracting at all, given the art style.

The HDR support is... OK, I guess? It's not bad like in some games, where turning it on seems to cause everything to look worse. But at the same time, it doesn't make your retinas bleed with colour as say God of War. And as far as visual settings are concerned, it is an on-off toggle, no other adjustable values. This is something that could, and hopefully will, be improved with future patches.

As a fellow gaffer noted in the pre-release thread, initially both the traversal and combat are very basic. I wouldn't worry too much. That is what's commonly known as "a tutorial".

At its very core, the Arkham influences to the melee combat are undeniable. There's one fundamental change to the formula though: instead of having triangle be "counter", as pretty much everywhere, it is "webstrike". There is no counter, just dodge (and thankfully, multiple different variations of it). This took a bit of adjusting, being so used to the Arkham formula, but it works both thematically (Spider-Man is no brawler) and gameplay-wise.

...but fighting on the ground is boring. You'll want to stay in the air, your focus (think "super" meter, also used to replenish health) will charge faster too.

The photo mode is there, and seems very competent (and will probably be improved later on). I predict a continuous barrage of screenshots for the next couple of months. No adjusting the camera during cutscenes though, but that's to be expected.

Edit: almost forgot - yes, there have been some QTE sequences so far, but quite brief ones. Haven't tried failing them so cannot say what would happen. But bits where you have to mash a single button (why is this still a thing?) do not require you to have Parkinson's and be high on meth.

Sure, press "options" and then select "skip cinematic". I'm assuming, I don't want to skip the story first time around so I haven't tried it.

Member

While the game itself is beautiful, and I know that developers always try and work in a brief tutorial, I just spent almost an hour on the opening scene, and it' was just underwhelming.

You basically have to fend off several dozen random badguys as you learn the combat moves - but it's just waves of bad guys, none whom has the slightest individual personality or backstory - for the purpose of getting to the first boss. The boss fight is really underwhelming, as it just feels like you are button mashing to get through it, as you are really limited in what you can do against the first boss.

The quick time events are about as mundane as you can get, in that it's just button pressing - there is no strategy or decision-making involved. This is my thing with quick time events - if you have to make interesting choices, they aren't bad. But - if you're just pressing buttons, there is no substance to it.

The worst is when you have to crawl through various ducts in a building. It's just "go from point A to point B and press a button."

And then - inexplicably, there was no story whatsoever in this opening scene. Spiderman has characters, villains, and decades worth of plot lines from the comic books, movies, etc. Yet, there was no story whatsoever to try and pull you in and feel motivated to get into the game.

I'm used to games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Witcher 3, GTA V, God of War (even Vampyr) in which the story set in the opening scene really pulls you in to the game and makes you want to get into the game by providing some backstory and motivation for getting into the world.

I'm still going to keep playing, but there was nothing about the gameplay or the story that has me excited to get back to it.

While the game itself is beautiful, and I know that developers always try and work in a brief tutorial, I just spent almost an hour on the opening scene, and it' was just underwhelming.

You basically have to fend off several dozen random badguys as you learn the combat moves - but it's just waves of bad guys, none whom has the slightest individual personality or backstory - for the purpose of getting to the first boss. The boss fight is really underwhelming, as it just feels like you are button mashing to get through it, as you are really limited in what you can do against the first boss.

The quick time events are about as mundane as you can get, in that it's just button pressing - there is no strategy or decision-making involved. This is my thing with quick time events - if you have to make interesting choices, they aren't bad. But - if you're just pressing buttons, there is no substance to it.

The worst is when you have to crawl through various ducts in a building. It's just "go from point A to point B and press a button."

And then - inexplicably, there was no story whatsoever in this opening scene. Spiderman has characters, villains, and decades worth of plot lines from the comic books, movies, etc. Yet, there was no story whatsoever to try and pull you in and feel motivated to get into the game.

I'm used to games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Witcher 3, GTA V, God of War (even Vampyr) in which the story set in the opening scene really pulls you in to the game and makes you want to get into the game by providing some backstory and motivation for getting into the world.

I'm still going to keep playing, but there was nothing about the gameplay or the story that has me excited to get back to it.

Neo Member

Spent about two hours on it so far and loving it ! The only thing i am struggling to adjust too is the triangle and R1 functions ...which is to web zip on enemies (triangle )and shoot webs (R1)...I feel like they should be the other way round 🤷🏻‍♂️Lol
Oh and dodging with Circle is taking me time to get used to aswel...I don’t know why!

Member

having played all Spider-Man games for the past 20 years I think this is by far the best of them all. but I have to admit, it takes some time until you fully appreciate it. the beginning is indeed boring and the first boss fight was totally unnecessary, since you have no cool moves and upgrades at that point and probably still struggle with the controls. but once you get your new suit and open up the map with the first few towers, the game becomes MUCH better. especially if you play stealthy. reminds me tons of the Batman Arkham series. Graphically and technically it's spectacular from the get go. Again, don't judge the game by the opening hour, it's merely a tutorial and not indicating of the quality the game has in later stages... especially when it comes to gameplay.

Member

A few hours in, love everything about the game except the HDR settings support. Since my C7 tone-maps the picture in game mode, the picture is less bright than it should be (can’t say it’s dim, but the highlights aren’t punchy). Horizon also has only the brightness slider, but it doesn’t wash out the picture (it’s probably tweaking the gamma curve rather than raising the digital black level - which is how you should do brightness). This one does, so I can either play it in Game Mode or the detail-clipping Standard mode, that also has 60ms input lag. I keep going back and forth instead of just playing. Seriously, how hard it is to put proper brightness sliders. Did they even test this on popular HDR TVs?

Other than that, the game certainly looks beautiful and is a lot of fun.

Member

I could never get into the Arkham series but this feels amazing. I'm having a blast. Probably got a good 5-6 hours in. Traversal feels so sexy. I could zip twice pull both triggers and catapult for more speed all day long. The combat is also a joy. So smooth.

Member

A few hours in, love everything about the game except the HDR settings support. Since my C7 tone-maps the picture in game mode, the picture is less bright than it should be (can’t say it’s dim, but the highlights aren’t punchy). Horizon also has only the brightness slider, but it doesn’t wash out the picture (it’s probably tweaking the gamma curve rather than raising the digital black level - which is how you should do brightness). This one does, so I can either play it in Game Mode or the detail-clipping Standard mode, that also has 60ms input lag. I keep going back and forth instead of just playing. Seriously, how hard it is to put proper brightness sliders. Did they even test this on popular HDR TVs?

Other than that, the game certainly looks beautiful and is a lot of fun.

I managed to set up my C7 in all HDR titles, that avoids completely th darker image when using HDR, but still retains the low input lag of game mode and doesn’t produce gradients. The trick is to set your consoles source icon to pc, then go back and forth changing the settings. Took me a LONG time to get it working right, but now, my HDR titles look fantastic and NOT dark, I get h very low I put lag offered by pc game mode, and best of all, I’ve totally avoided all gradient issues that some issues had with using the pc mode setup. All in all, really happy with how it looks and performs I’m not at home atm, but I will be soon. I’ll post my setup for you if you want to give it a go?

Member

Got 6 hours in, mostly from just swinging around, doing random objectives and collecting backpacks. Story-wise I'm only at the construction site so I've barely moved it forward. I'm not quite sure swinging has clicked with me yet but combat finally has. I'm on Spectacular and at the start I was very dependent on Web Blossom from the classic suit but now that I've got the hang of staying in the air I'm no longer using suit powers. Also Velocity suit has grown on me. I thought it was ugly on reveal but now I've probably spent 3 of those 6 hours using it.

Member

Great game - the opening was fantastic and they have nailed the Spider-Man feel so well, but the fan is loud on cut scenes and some internal bits (PS4 Pro). Might bump it down to 1080p to see if it helps.

Member

I managed to set up my C7 in all HDR titles, that avoids completely th darker image when using HDR, but still retains the low input lag of game mode and doesn’t produce gradients. The trick is to set your consoles source icon to pc, then go back and forth changing the settings. Took me a LONG time to get it working right, but now, my HDR titles look fantastic and NOT dark, I get h very low I put lag offered by pc game mode, and best of all, I’ve totally avoided all gradient issues that some issues had with using the pc mode setup. All in all, really happy with how it looks and performs I’m not at home atm, but I will be soon. I’ll post my setup for you if you want to give it a go?

Well, sure, but the PC mode does not support wide color gamut meaning the colors look far worse. I much prefer the dim picture than the colors in PC mode. Perhaps I’m missing something, so I’d love to see your settings, but for me, I just deal with it in Game Mode with DC: Medium or switch to Standard.

I don’t really notice the lag increase personally. However, I prefer how Game Mode looks for games with decent settings. For this one, I’m going with Standard for now.

Member

It uses dynamic resolution, according to DF it's between 3456x1944 and 2560x1368, with 1584p being the average.

Before the "temporal injection" pass, that is. Have you seen Ratchet & Clank on a Pro/4K screen? There the internal resolution is 1440p, but what is visible on the TV seems to be of much higher resolution.